Daily Current Affairs – 28th October 2014

Today’s Feast days of Simon the Zealot and Jude the Apostle (Western Christianity).

Today’s 100th anniversary of the birth of Jonas Salk. He works in the field of Medical research, virology and epidemiology. He discovered and developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to Jewish parents. While attending New York University School of Medicine, Salk went into medical research instead of becoming a practicing physician.

The Reserve Bank of India signed a pact with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information.

World Bank released its bi-annual report India Development Update. In the report, the World Bank has emphasized on continuing domestic reforms and encouraging investments so as to achieve higher growth rates.

Union Finance Ministry cancelled the current selection process for the posts of Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) and Executive Director (ED) of Public Sector Banks (PSBs). The decision of scrapping the process after receiving the report of a committee that was constituted to examine the selection process adopted for the appointment of CMDs and EDs of PSBs for the year 2014 -15. The committee consisted of Secretary Expenditure, Secretary School Education and the RBI Governor.

Reserve Bank of India released Gopalakrishna Committee report on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks. The committee has recommended a 360-degree feedback for a transparent and comprehensive performance assessment exercise, one that ensures adequate performance differentiation between employees.

Sixth Delhi Economic Census 2013 was released. The economic census was released by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics of Delhi Government.

Manipur and Nagaland were cut-off from the rest of the country from 27 October 2014 due to the 1000-hour district blockade called in a Karbi Along district of Assam from 5 am.

Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the National Air Quality Index (AQI) in New Delhi. The National Air Quality Index is an initiative under Swachh Bharat Mission envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce the culture of cleanliness.

European Central Bank (ECB) recently conducted a landmark health check of the banks of the Euro zone to ascertain real condition of the banking industry in which Italy performed worst in this test with nine of its banks falling short and two still needing to raise funds.

Sandeep Saxena was appointed as new Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu on 27 October 2014. He succeeded Praveen Kumar who was holding this post since August 2010. His appointment as CEO was announced by Chief Secretary Mohan Verghese Chunkath. Saxena is also designated as Principal Secretary to Government, Public (Elections) Department.

Union Cabinet approved the launching of National AYUSH Mission (NAM). The word AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.

Union Minister was selected Jairam Ramesh to chair ‘Future Earth Engagement Committee’ – a global research committee on sustainable development that was constituted by an alliance of organisations including the UNEP, the UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Manjul Bhargava was recently in news because he won the Fields Medal awards for the year 2014. The Fields Medal is also known as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics and is awarded to mathematicians who are aged below 40.

Union Defence Ministry cleared the deal worth 8000 crore rupees to buy anti tank missiles from Israel. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) which was headed by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.

Telecom giant SoftBank of Japan announced to make an investment of 10 billion US dollars (over 60000 crore rupees) in India’s IT and communications sector in coming years.

Union Government launched Jammu Kashmir Arogya Gram Yojna in Jammu and Kashmir. The scheme aims to encourage farmers in J&K to cultivate scientifically tested and commercially beneficial aromatic and medicinal plants in the state.

Google in the third week of October 2014 announced changes to its search engine in an attempt to curb online piracy and highlight legal sites. The new measures will direct the users towards legal alternatives such as Spotify and Google Play. Google will now list these legal services in a box at the top of the search results as well as in a box on the right-hand side of the page.

Biography of Allama Muhammad Iqbal was released in October 2014. The biography is titled Iqbal: The Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician. The biography is written by Zafar Anjum, the editor of Kitaab. The book has been published by Random House.

Realty firm Emaar MGF Land Limited tied up with payment gateway firm PayU India for providing an online payment facility to its customers.

Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for the year 2014 was announced on 20 October 2014. The winners include among others, an Indian American teenager Kiran Sridhar. He is one of the 25 recipients of The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for 2014.